Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that China is willing to exert more pressure to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

He told reporters in Beijing he was pleased that China "could not have more forcefully reiterated its commitment" to the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.

The reclusive Asian state has defied international warnings not to build atomic bombs and long-range missiles. It is believed to have enough fissile material to build up to 10 nuclear bombs, but most intelligence analysts say it has yet to master the technology to deploy such weapons.

"I encouraged the Chinese to use every tool at their disposal, all of the means of persuasion that they have, building on the depths of their long and historic and cultural and common history" with North Korea, he said.

"They made it very clear that if the North doesn't comply and come to the table and be serious about talks and stop its program ... they are prepared to take additional steps in order to make sure their policy is implemented," Kerry said, adding the United States and China were now discussing "the specifics of how you do that."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Kerry China would work with all parties concerned, including the United States, to play a constructive role for the region's peace and stability.

"China will never allow chaos or war on the Korean Peninsula," Wang said, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

North Korea was raised during Kerry's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Foreign Ministry said, with Xi "setting forth China's stance." It gave no other details.

The East and South China Seas featured prominently on Kerry's agenda too, with him calling for a "more rule of law based, less confrontational regime."

The United States is uneasy about what it sees as China's effort to gain creeping control over waters in the Asia-Pacific region, including its Nov. 23 declaration of an air defense identification zone in an area of the East China Sea that includes islands at the center of a dispute with Japan.

China claims about 90 percent of the 1.35 million square-mile South China Sea, depicting what it sees as its area on maps with a so-called nine-dash line, looping far out over the sea from south China.